Alisse Waterston (born 1951) is an American professor of
anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, society, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including archaic humans. Social anthropology studies patterns of behav ...
at
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
The John Jay College of Criminal Justice (John Jay) is a public college focused on criminal justice and located in New York City. It is a senior college of the City University of New York (CUNY). John Jay was founded as the only liberal arts col ...
,
City University of New York
The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...
. Her work focuses on how systemic violence and inequality influence society.
Early life and education
Waterston attended
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...
, receiving her bachelor's degree in
experimental psychology
Experimental psychology is the work done by those who apply Experiment, experimental methods to psychological study and the underlying processes. Experimental psychologists employ Research participant, human participants and Animal testing, anim ...
and
education
Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education als ...
. She then continued her education, earning her master's degree at
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
, where she focused on Cultural Anthropology, with ''Puerto Rican Women in the U.S.: Family, Religion and Political Economy'' as her thesis. This was followed by her PhD studies at
City University of New York Graduate Center
The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public university, public research institution and post-graduate university, postgraduate university in New York City. Formed in 1961 as Divi ...
in 1990. Her dissertation, ''Aspects of Street Addict Life'', was published that year.
Career
Waterston served as an adjunct instructor from 1981 to 1985 at
Pace University
Pace University is a private university with campuses in New York City and Westchester County, New York, United States. It was established in 1906 as a business school by the brothers Homer St. Clair Pace and Charles A. Pace. Pace enrolls about ...
at
White Plains and
Pleasantville, N.Y., in the Department of Anthropology and Sociology. In 1991 and 1992 she was Adjunct Assistant Professor at
State University of New York
The State University of New York (SUNY ) is a system of Public education, public colleges and universities in the New York (state), State of New York. It is one of the List of largest universities and university networks by enrollment, larges ...
, in the Purchase Division of Social Sciences. She was then hired for a year as adjunct assistant professor at the Department of Anthropology and Sociology of
Fordham University
Fordham University is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in New York City, United States. Established in 1841, it is named after the Fordham, Bronx, Fordham neighborhood of the Bronx in which its origina ...
.
Along with her sister Adriana, in 1992 Waterston co-founded Surveys Unlimited, a Horowitz Associates division dedicated to the social, cultural and ethnic research for urban markets. She served as president from the founding until 2003. During this time she was a visiting associate professor at
New School for Social Research
The New School for Social Research (NSSR), previously known as The University in Exile and The New School University, is a graduate-level educational division of The New School in New York City, United States. NSSR enrolls more than 1,000 stud ...
from 1996 to 1998 in the Graduate Faculty in Sociology in New York. In 1998, Waterston was awarded the NAMIC Excellence Award for Research. She worked as editor of
North American Dialogue (the publication of the Society for the Anthropology of North America) for six years.
In 2003 Waterston became an associate professor at
John Jay College of Criminal Justice
The John Jay College of Criminal Justice (John Jay) is a public college focused on criminal justice and located in New York City. It is a senior college of the City University of New York (CUNY). John Jay was founded as the only liberal arts col ...
in the Associate
Department of Anthropology.
In 2005, Alisse served as the executive program chair for the 104th annual meeting of the
American Anthropological Association
The American Anthropological Association (AAA) is an American organization of scholars and practitioners in the field of anthropology. With 10,000 members, the association, based in Arlington, Virginia, includes archaeologists, cultural anthropo ...
.
In 2006, Waterston was named chair of a new American Anthropological Association board on the Future of Electronic and Print Publishing, a committee to oversee the AAA transition to digital publishing with AnthroSource. In 2015 she serves as the organization's chair.
In 2009 Waterston became a full professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
In 2013 she published an ethnographic account of her father in a book titled ''My Father's Wars'' (Routledge). She is president-elect of the American Anthropological Association, to serve as its vice president (2014–2015) and president in 2016–2017.
She is a member of John Jay College Foundation, Inc. board of trustees and a Non-resident Long-term Fellow at
Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in
Uppsala
Uppsala ( ; ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the capital of Uppsala County and the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019.
Loc ...
,
Sweden
Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...
.
Publications
*''Street Addicts in the Political Economy'' was published in 1993 by the Temple University Press. Waterston discusses economic and socio political forces that lead to a street-addict life in urban areas.
**''Love, Sorrow and Rage: Destitute Women in a Manhattan Residence'' was published on 1999 by the Temple University press. An insider's view on how it is like to live in the streets of NY and what kind of problems the homeless women face.
*''An Anthropology of War: Views from the Frontline'' (2008).
*''Anthropology off the Shelf: Anthropologists on Writing'' was published in 2011 with cultural anthropologist Maria D. Vesperi. 18 anthropologists write about publishing research materials.
*''My Father’s Wars: Migration, Memory, and the Violence of a Century'' (2013) is written from a view point of a daughter analyzing her father who has been influenced greatly by 20th century social history.
References
External links
CUNY faculty page, ''Alisse Waterston''''My father's wars'' book webpage*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Waterston, Alisse
1951 births
Living people
American women anthropologists
20th-century American anthropologists
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American anthropologists
21st-century American women writers
New York University alumni
Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
CUNY Graduate Center alumni
Pace University faculty
State University of New York at Purchase faculty
Fordham University faculty
The New School faculty
John Jay College of Criminal Justice faculty
American women academics